AimlesslyChasingAmy

OK.  It’s true.  I rolled my eyes when Gracie chain blog tagged me for the “7 Things No One Knows About Me.”  I can’t think of a chain letter that I didn’t personally derail.  But I’m totally loving the results all over the poker blogosphere.  Bloggers dug deep to come up with some funny, intriguing, and just downright shocking personal fodder.  Inspired by the result, my rag tag team of poker boyz started an email version of it today.  And as my brother predicted, my mother was not shocked by my sexual revelation - she did admonish me for not seeking more medical advice relative to boosting my calcium absorption.  

Lou Krieger called me the day after I tagged him.  ”What the hell did you do to me?  I’ve been delving into my past.  I lost an entire day on this already.”  I specifically picked Lou because Lou’s blog is very newsy and not very personal.  But Lou is a great writer and is a very interesting guy.  I suspected, now confirmed, that he’d rise to the occasion - no matter how much he bitched.  And I see we are a very small pyramid as bloggers have received multiple tags.  I still have one more taggie - I gave BJ Nemeth a phone tag as he is almost ready to restart his blog after a painful hard drive failure.       

It was recently announced that PokerNews was signed on by Bluff Magazine for the bulk of the online tournament reporting duties at the WSOP this year.  Bluff got tagged by Harrah’s as the exclusive media provider for the 2007 WSOP - a role Card Player had for the 2006 WSOP.

I will be part of the PokerNews team and will have the enviable company of Pauly, Change 100, BJ Nemeth, the Poker Shrink, Mean Gene, Shronk, Tiffany, Steve Horton, and other known veterans.  PokerNews went out of their way to tag a core team of writers and reporters that revere the legacy of the WSOP, know the vast majority of the US, non-US and internet pros,  and see this as a personal and professional mission to preserve part of poker’s history.  We are wildly enthusiastic about this opportunity.  Obviously we can’t do it alone - and we will be bringing on some relatively new, but battle tested and equally enthusiastic, interns to help us. 

All that being said, covering the 2007 WSOP is going to be a daunting task.  There will be thousands of players in the field each day, with as many as six events running simultaneously.  Every day will have at least 15 hours of play to cover.  While our goal is to know each and every player - especially as the fields narrow down to 300 players - these events always attract many new and relatively unknown players.  As committed as we are, we will get it wrong once in awhile - a misreported hand - a missed player in the field - a botched bust out - it will eventually happen.  We have additional measures in place to detect errors if/when they occur, but nothing is fool proof.  Collectively, we have already talked about getting trashed in the forums when we fall short.  We’re committed to take all criticism and suggestions constructively - no matter how they are worded or delivered.  Feedback (positive and negative) is a tool that we will use to improve the quality of “our product.”

I’ve seen some comments lamenting the absence of other reporting media.  Lament no more.  This will be very similar to last year.  While PokerNews will have some exclusive access and reporting duties, all the “regular” poker reporting media will still be there.  PokerPages was perhaps the first media outlet to provide online WSOP coverage.  I still remember being able to watch Perry Friedman’s bracelet winning performance in the 2002 Omaha hi/lo event on video at PokerPages - long before YouTube was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.  PokerPages will be sending in a team this year - as will PokerListings, Gutshot, PokerWire, etc.  And as I understand it, Harrah’s will also be supporting a blogger pool with live feeds to their WSOP website, although I haven’t seen their guidelines on this yet.  While I understand the need for Harrah’s to restrict media access (it can be a real clusterfuck when you have as many reporters covering an event as there are players), I still feel media competition is a good thing; pressure for better quality and more choices are good for poker and poker readers.